The present invention relates generally to waste treatment and, in particular, to a waste disposal system for treating and disposing of infectious or biohazardous waste in a manner whereby the waste is chemically treated in a precisely controlled batch process so as to produce a non-toxic and non-infectious liquid or liquid/sludge residue that can be safely discharged into a sanitary sewer or landfill.
In recent years, the category of "infectious waste" has become more clearly defined as a category of environmental waste material having treatment and disposal requirements which are distinctly different from other types of non-hazardous and hazardous wastes. There has been a developing understanding that pathogenic agents which are the focus of infectious waste are transmitted primarily by blood, blood products, body fluids, bone, and tissue, and secondarily by the containers, gloves, syringes, diapers, dressings, and other objects which have come in contact with the above mentioned biological products.
Effective treatment of infectious waste requires a treatment system which is effective against bacteria and viruses as well as other potentially pathogenic agents. Proper treatment of all of these forms of infectious waste requires a precisely controlled process whereby all pathogenic agents contained in the infectious waste come in contact with a chemical of sufficient content and concentration for a sufficient length of contact time to neutralize these pathogenic agents. Ideally, such a process should have the capability to be easily adjusted according to the volume and type of infectious waste being treated.
Waste treatment processes have been developed which either address certain specific types of biological or non-biological waste materials or all forms of waste generated by a particular type of generator, such as a hospital. However, such waste disposal processes have not focused exclusively on infectious waste. Therefore, such processes and systems are either not economically practicable or are otherwise unsuitable for many infectious waste generators.
In recent years waste treatment processes have been developed to provide some level of treatment of infectious waste. However, such treatment has either focused on the neutralization of bacteria only or lacked the control necessary to insure that all potentially pathogenic agents present in infectious waste, as described above, are effectively treated.